“Being such a major f***-up I know how wilful I was, I know how hard it is for anyone to stop you, particularly when you’re famous and ­people are employed by you.

“If someone stands up to you as a celebrity, what you gonna do, fire them? Probably.”

Nowadays the Eighties legend is a changed man. He is charming, intelligent, witty, regretful of his heroin addiction and keen to make amends.

On the decks: Boy George DJing in Ibiza

Scary

Over dinner in a posh restaurant in Ibiza, George muses: “I look back at my other self and think: ‘What the f*** were you? What were you doing? How did you cross the road?’

“I honestly don’t know how I did what I did.”

With this in mind the world-famous DJ turns his attention to marijuana-loving Rihanna, 25.

The wayward pop star received a huge backlash from parents of her young fans after posting endless photos on Twitter and Instagram of her smoking cannabis. The ex-Culture Club star says it’s alarming how unashamed she is.

“When an artist is doing something like that, that’s when you know they’ve got a real problem,” he says.

“When you have no boundaries with yourself and you’re prepared to break the law on Twitter, that’s kinda scary.

“What you do in your own time and what you do that influences fans are very different. Of course if you’re a f***-up, people will see you’re a f***-up, but I don’t think you should celebrate it.”

Despite his colourful past the flamboyant singer has sold 50 million albums, is a world-famous DJ, singer-songwriter, author and fashion designer.

“The odds are one of One Direction must be gay. I think everyone is a bit bisexual deep down, I’d be disappointed if they weren’t”

Boy George

“When I was a mess I thought the only person I was hurting was myself,” he candidly admits while tucking into his cheesecake dessert. “You don’t realise everyone that loves you gets hurt. I was emitting dark gasses of hatred, I’m so glad my life of drugs didn’t go any further. I wish I could have chosen another route.”

The hugely respected house DJ, who’s a resident at Ibiza superclub Amnesia, is a huge fan of social networking and has nearly 270,000 followers on Twitter.

Notoriously he got into a war of words with One Direction star Liam Payne, 19, by branding him a “twit” who deserves to be punched.

Their altercation began at this year’s BRIT awards when George tried to get a photo of Niall Horan, 19, for his niece.

Boy George with the Daily Star's Jessica Brown

He doesn’t regret their online spat though – in fact, he thoroughly enjoyed it.

“I wouldn’t know who One Direction were if they fell on my head,” he jokes. “I’m older than them, they should treat me with respect. I blocked all the band, I couldn’t be bothered to hear anything they said but I couldn’t help winding up their fans.

“I was having such a laugh, fighting with One Dir­ection’s fans all night. I did say some vile things, I had too much sugar. But I really enjoyed it.”

No doubt angering overzealous fans even more, he adds: “The odds are one of One Direction must be gay. I think everyone is a bit bisexual deep down, so the odds are they are probably all bisexual. They’re rock stars so it’s what you’d expect, isn’t it? I’d be disappointed if they weren’t.

“Tattoos don’t make you butch. Look at me.”

Boy George and Marc Vedo’s new single These Gods Will Fall with Federico Scavo and John Gibbons is out now on Hotfingers Records.